Many were shocked by the timing of the decision, especially with the crucial second leg of their Champions League last 16 clash with Sevilla on the horizon.

But Redknapp insists no one can blame the club for acting, givien their precarious position near the bottom of the top flight table.

Leicester sit just one point above the bottom-three after a run of just one win in ten league games, and five straight defeats.

Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, the former Tottenham and Queens Park Rangers boss said: “It didn’t surprise me. I could see it coming and I’d be a liar if I said I’m shocked.

“He’s done an amazing job at Leicester and what he did last year was just fantastic, but when results are going like they are now, the owners must be thinking, ‘it’s not changing, we’re not winning, it’s been a horrendous run and we’ll be relegated unless we change it’.

“They can’t afford to go down. Once you go down to the Championship it’s not easy to come back again.

“Sentiment goes out the window when you need to make sure you stay in the Premier League, and obviously they’ve felt that, unless they made a change, there was every chance they would drop out - which would been amazing after winning the title last year. It would be a disaster.

“The players, the team, they were all different class last season but this year they have not performed, they don’t look the same group of players. So I wouldn’t say I was shocked by the decision, I had a feeling it was going to come sooner or later.”

Former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini, ex-Chelsea interim coach Guus Hiddink and even former Foxes manager Nigel Pearson have been linked with the role in these early stages, and Redknapp is certain the club already have an appointment in the works.

“That’s just the way it works. They would not have left themselves open without having spoken to somebody.

“Nigel Pearson did a great job before, but I’d be surprised if they took him back now. It’s a great job, they’re good enough to stay up, the players are good enough and I think they’ll just about scrape out of it.”

Latest reports on Thursday have claimed Mancini, who played for Leicester towards the end of his playing career, has already been contacted by the club, but asked if he would take the job if approached by the Foxes, Redknapp added: “That’s a very hypothetical question – it’s not going to happen!

“They haven’t spoken to me, but I’m sure there is somebody they have spoken to.